PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – British Prime Minister  Gordon Brown said yesterday his family helped him cope with  the pressures of his job, denying reports that he took it out on  office equipment when he was angry.

Media reports earlier this year, denied by Brown’s office at  the time, said he threw mobile phones around the office when he  lost his temper.

Asked in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live if he had thrown  typewriters or photocopiers around, Brown said: “I don’t think  there are any typewriters anyway, I think they went out a long  time ago … No, I don’t. It’s just nonsense.”

Brown, who has faced strong pressure over the economic  crisis and the British mission in Afghanistan, said his wife  Sarah and two children helped him cope with the stress.

“I have got a great family and a great wife and we are a  very, very strong family,” Brown said in the interview recorded  in Trinidad and Tobago, where he was attending a Commonwealth  summit.

“I get up in the morning and I say to Sarah `We have got to  deal with all the new challenges that this day brings.‘ Every  day brings new challenges and every day you are tested. That’s  what the job is about,” he said.

“I can’t wish away the financial crisis, but I can deal with  the consequences of it. I can’t wish away the fact that we are  in Afghanistan with a job to do. I think we are doing the right  thing,” said Brown, who faces an uphill battle to win a general  election due by next June.

“No matter what criticism you get, you have to remind  yourself that this is a responsibility you are discharging on  behalf of the British people. Whatever criticism there is, you  have got to get on with the job,” he said.